


When Lightning Strikes

by gaywrongs



Category: LOONA (Korea Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Pirate, F/F, me at me starting an ongoing on a whim with no semblance of planning: thar she blows, yeah you read that tag right
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-08
Updated: 2019-06-15
Packaged: 2019-11-13 20:48:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 13,570
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18038762
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gaywrongs/pseuds/gaywrongs
Summary: Very few things flustered the formidable Jo Haseul, captain ofThe Loona, matched in infamy only by the crew as a collective.Vivi happened to be one of those very few things.Or: Twelve air pirates, a bit of magik, and a whole lot of trouble.





	1. Storms

**Author's Note:**

> very loosely inspired by the movie Stardust; very greatly inspired by my desire to see Haseul wield a cutlass and kick some ass

On land, the day was much like any other. A normal person might’ve stepped outside their decrepit seaside shack or their luxurious mountaintop estate and noted the dark clouds that gathered in the distance. They might’ve inhaled that particular scent of rain promising to fall within the hour, and they might’ve let out a sigh as they turned back inside. A normal person might’ve taken shelter from the incoming storm.

Jo Haseul was not a normal person.

Far in the distance, lightning cracked against the sky, and the short-haired captain lowered her spyglass with a gleam in her sharp eyes.

She inhaled that scent of rain that to a normal person might have meant nothing but a wasted day hiding inside. To people like Chuu’s past self, perhaps it meant watered crops, another healthy patch to survive another day. To Haseul, the electrified air smelled of potential.

She let her breath go in a bark of a command. “Reef the sails! We hit gold in eight minutes!”

“Not needin’ to shout up’n my ear,” An irritated voice piped from just behind her.

Haseul tore her gaze away from the measured flashes of lightning and turned. “You know, Yeojin, if you were anyone but you, I might’ve had you walk the plank for how often you try to scare me.”

The small girl puffed out her cheeks. “Ain’t me fault the rest o’ you’s so loud. Wit’ your clunkity-clunk boots. ‘Ey don’t make’n you any taller.”

She scuttled away, anticipating Haseul’s well-aimed kick.

The next soft voice came from her left. Instinctually, her body relaxed.

“We bought her new shoes when we touched down in Daehavvic, didn’t we?” Vivi asked. Haseul didn’t need to look around to locate their youngest again, knowing she was running around deck bothering the others, feet as bare as when Haseul had first met her.

“Won’t wear them. She says they make her feel ‘all tied up-like’.” Haseul capped her spyglass, feeling the ship begin to slow.

Vivi hummed. “And unlike you, she doesn’t like that feeling?”

Very few things flustered the formidable Jo Haseul, captain of _The Loona_ , matched in infamy only by the crew as a collective. Vivi happened to be one of those very few things. Haseul flushed red. She successfully kicked the other, and winced as her steel-toed boot met with the metal casing of Vivi’s leg. Vivi barely shifted.

“Ah,” She tutted at the regretful look on Haseul’s face. “No apologies.”

Haseul averted her eyes to the clouds straight ahead. They were about 35,000 fathoms above sea level. The flashes of light could be seen easily now. She felt the rumble of thunder in her gut, and began to count.

“Seven minutes!” She bellowed, and then quieter, eyes still calculating, “You should get below.”

The clink of metal fissures unlocking was belied by Vivi’s small sigh. Each time, Haseul couldn’t quite tell if it was a sigh of relief, or resignation, or something else. There was a light tap on her shoulder. Vivi had her right arm held out in her left hand; she continued to tap Haseul’s cloaked shoulders playfully with the metal limb, now limp as it was disconnected from her body.

“Would you like corn with dinner tonight?”

“The kids will eat anything you cook,” Haseul said with a snort.

“Yes, but I want to make what you’d like,” Vivi said.

Haseul turned and nearly melted at the earnest look in Vivi’s eyes. She allowed a soft smile to grace her otherwise sharp features. “Corn would be fantastic.”

Vivi returned the smile with an unconscious glance at Haseul’s lips, and began to make her way below deck to the kitchen.

“I don’t know how you manage to cook during the storms,” Haseul called after her, wanting to savor a moment more between the two of them before the ship exploded, almost literally.

She caught Vivi’s cheeky grin at the door to the staircase at the end of the poop deck. “Jungeun and Yeojin are very good at cleaning.” With a backwards wave of her metal arm, she disappeared below. Thunder rumbled, louder.

Tender-smile Haseul was replaced by the fearsome Captain Jo of _The Loona_. There was nothing soft about the woman who had once bested the king’s general in a sword-fight, who had led her crew through the Ahobix Sea and lived, who was the only pirate brave, or crazy, enough to harvest lightning at its very source.

“Captain, we’ve belayed the barrels and the cannons,” Choerry rushed up to inform her.

“Good.”

“And Yeojin,” Jinsoul added cheerily in passing, on her way to help Kim Lip with the riggings.

“Even better.” Haseul could hear the angry protests of their youngest over the back-and-forth, systematic shouting amongst the others. She didn’t have to look to know that everything was falling into place, perhaps last-second, perhaps with unnecessary gusto that might cost another arm some day, but ending in place all the same. _The Loona_ and her sailors were a seamless machine, when it came down to it. Haseul trusted her motley crew with her life. The ship lurched forward as it began to encroach on the outer territory of the storm. She took in a deep breath of the electrified air.

“It needs to be starboard! Have you lost what’s left of your mind?” First mate Heejin’s deep voice rang out.

“Starboard, my ass! And maybe I have lost my mind, because dealing with you has driven me mad!” Chief engineer Hyunjin called back, irritated.

Haseul exhaled. “Choerry, would you…”

“On it, Captain!” Choerry dashed off to mediate, bless her. Immediately, another figure took her place.

“‘Lo Captain, Yves told Chuu to tell me to tell you tha’ we’re fixed to navigate straight into the cluster righ’ over there and the winds’ll be pickin’ up in a second, well as the rain an’ all, and she hopes that ‘Livia and I have got the harvesters ready and set this time because she’s not fixed to get burned again…” Gowon trailed off, looking behind her. “...I don’t think tha’ was part of the message to you, but besides, I was mayhaps wonderin’ if this go-around I could try a little spell I’ve been workin’ on, to help with the ear-ringin’ forth-after the storm?”

The ship wasn’t approaching as slowly as Haseul would have liked. It was always best to tickle the temperament of a storm first before being swept in. She frowned as Gowon went on into the magikal theory behind her newest experiment, complete with strange noises and odd hand gestures.

“Yes, do what you like,” Haseul cut her off. Gowon pumped her fist in excitement. “And tell second mate to mark course for clear skies starting now. I can feel this storm… she’s going to be a wild one.” A flash of lightning punctuated her prediction.

“Captain, you’re knowin’ that Yves will hear no one, savin’ Chuu, when she’s in the nest -- ”

Haseul cut her off again, resisting the urge to send an impatient glare her way. “Right, right; tell _Chuu_ to tell second mate…”

“On it, Captain!” Gowon imitated Choerry’s cheerful salutations and ran off to begin making her way up the ropes to the crow’s nest. Haseul watched her go, wondering briefly if she antagonized her on purpose or if she shared the same sedated thought process as Jinsoul.

A low, rolling grumble and then a deafening boom of thunder interrupted her musings. The crack echoed in her veins. She jumped to the helm and unchained the wheel from its locked position.

“Avast!” Her cry silenced the rest of her crew. Another roll of thunder filled the atmosphere with even higher tension and excitement. Ten people looked to her in anticipation. She imagined that Vivi was safe below deck, also waiting for her, boiling pots of corn to reward the crew after another successful harvest. Haseul couldn’t help the wide grin that spread across her face.

“Pirates!” She yelled, for that was what they were, maybe not what they had all started out as, but it was the life that they now chose and fought fiercely to protect. Thunder rumbled menacingly. Her hands gripped the wheel, her boots dug into the creaky wood of the deck, and her crew shouted in unified response:

“Aye!”

Haseul shouted over the sudden winds that whipped her cloak about her sturdy frame. “Your treasure awaits you!”

The roars from her crew were drowned out by the explosion of thunder around them. Even the tiny hairs on Haseul’s arms lifted as Olivia and Gowon fired up the harvester machines. All at once, it began to pour heavy sheets of rain. Static electricity fueled the adrenaline in Haseul’s blood. She shifted the rudder and pushed the wheel forward with an exultant shout that went unheard in another sonic boom.

No, Jo Haseul was not a normal person.

The grin remained, and into the heart of the storm they flew.


	2. and Ships

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> She took a precious moment to swipe rain out of her eyes with one arm, immediately feeling the strain in her other as it fought to keep the ship under control. It was one small pirate against one of nature’s worst behemoths.
> 
> The rain couldn’t wipe the grin from her face.

Haseul could always count on her crew to go about things in their own incredibly, unfortunately unique way. That was why she barely spared a glance when Yves jumped from a bit higher than was safe from the ropes leading to the crow’s nest, much to Chuu’s screeching dismay. Somehow her shrieks were so high pitched that they could be heard over the raucous thundering, now almost constant. Gowon and Heejin’s sound-muffling spells could only go so far.

“You dummy! Be careful!”

“It’s faster,” was Yves’ nonchalant reply. Chuu was the only one who could get away with calling Yves a dummy, aside from Olivia, perhaps. No one else dared insult the deadly woman of few words who carried herself with unbreakable poise and grace. Moons ago when they had all first met, Jinsoul had teased Yves about her royal uniform, and promptly attained a black eye. Yves eventually broke habit and left the uniform to hang somewhere deep in her closet, but no one ever brought it up again.

The only other girl besides Chuu that Yves often bantered with, to everyone else’s surprise and sometimes envy, now sprinted to the helm, slipping on the soaked deck.

“Captain!” Olivia caught her footing easily and skid to a stop next to Haseul. “Gowon’s being Gowon again!”

Now this was worrying enough for Haseul to peer across the deck. Olivia tugged on her billowy sleeve in dismay.

“She’s not wearing the safety gear! She said you said she could do what she likes!”

Indeed, Gowon’s bright golden locks and pale skin glowed, uncovered, in the flashes of light around them. The harvesters had begun to whir excitedly. Her hair stood on end, revealing the look of utter fascination and delight on her delicate face.

“Does she want to be electrocuted?” Yves wondered, mostly disinterested. She held her arm out, anticipating Chuu’s slippery arrival as she landed, taking the slower, safer route down.

Chuu slipped as expected and clutched onto Yves’ hand for balance. She pointed vigorously with her free hand. “Are you all seeing Gowon?!”

“She’s kind of hard to miss, isn't she?” Olivia said. The master gunner’s voice, normally monotone, held a certain infliction that Haseul had only recently begun to realize appeared only when she was talking about Gowon, or talking to Choerry. Sometimes, Haseul wondered about the Eden girls. Most everyone was willing to offer up bits of their pasts to the others after a few barrels of grog on a cold night. The only information that the four ever offered was that they were from a distant kingdom called Eden. It was easy enough to deduce that Yves had once been some sort of soldier, but it was more difficult to figure out why it was that Yves seemed to be the leader figure yet silenced so easily by a look from Chuu, or a soft sentence from Gowon, or an odd hand gesture from Olivia. But she let them have their secrets. After all, Captain Jo had once been simply Haseul.

However, right now, she was Captain, and one of her crew was once again on the verge of blowing up their ship. She reset her grip on the wheel as a particularly strong gale threatened her fixed stance.

“Where’s Choerry?” Haseul shouted towards Olivia. She glanced back to scan the deck and cursed inwardly when she spotted the flash of purple hair mizzen-side, wedged between Heejin and Hyunjin, preventing the two from devolving into a fist-fight. It wouldn’t have been the first time. Haseul was glad that they were forced to leave their metal cutlasses below deck during a harvest.

“‘Lo, riggings and sails are set!” Kim Lip’s voice called through the wind, and then exasperated, likely upon looking over the deck and seeing the inaction all around: “What is everyone doing?!” Haseul felt a twinge of empathy for the poor bosun, and then again when her mate spoke up.

“I was looking for Yeojin,” Jinsoul shouted back in her typical, slow lilt. “She managed to get out of the ropes again. It’s amazing, really, how she does it.”

“Ay, Gowon’sh sayin’ the harvesters’ a ready!” Yeojin screeched and waved her bare arms from beside Gowon, who was now glowing a bit too much for it to be just illumination.

“Oh, I found her!” Jinsoul beamed, waving back through sheets of rain.

Haseul barely heard Kim Lip’s screeching curses. She felt the buzz just under her skin that warned of an incoming lightning strike. It was something in the air that changed for a split second, similar to the tingling she felt when a cutlass was swinging down towards her, or when Vivi gave her a certain look and leaned in. It signified intention. And the next, big strike of energy, she knew, intended to hit the giant metal magnets on deck designed by Hyunjin and Heejin to attract and contain lightning’s very essence.

And it was coming, soon.

“Get to cover!” Haseul boomed. “And someone make Yeojin wear a protective suit, or toss her overboard; I don’t care!” She didn’t have time to check behind her again, feeling Yves drag Chuu away and Olivia sprint off in the opposite direction towards Gowon. She could only hope that Gowon’s magik experimentation would leave her mostly intact.

Mere seconds later, Haseul felt the air grasp everything around her and hold it absolutely still. She sucked in a breath.

The flash was a supernova. The blast of accompanying thunder made the protective sound-muffling barriers feel like a piece of parchment. 

Haseul forced her eyes open amidst the storm and wrestled with the wheel as the repercussions from the energy hitting the harvesters forced the ship to list to one side dangerously. Her grunt of surprise went unheard in the next, slightly smaller explosion. She took a precious moment to swipe rain out of her eyes with one arm, immediately feeling the strain in her other as it fought to keep the ship under control. It was one small pirate against one of nature’s worst behemoths.

The rain couldn’t wipe the grin from her face.

She waited for the next flash and boom to occur before kicking the rudder with all her might. Normally, in order to move the steering mechanisms for a ship this large, it would take at least two strong sailors to constantly wrestle at the helm. Moons ago, Heejin had magiked the wheel and rudder to respond only to Haseul’s slight provocations. Still, in a storm of this magnitude, Haseul had to use quite a bit of force to get the ship to obey.

The rudder swung, and Haseul leaned her weight to one side to move the wheel in kind. _The Loona_ responded to her will with a groan of protest. The ship righted, and she waited for the tell-tale sputtering noise of the harvesters settling down to give the next order to Yves. To her confusion, the harvesters continued to whir and whine. She chanced a look around. Her heart plummeted as she took in the sight of Olivia struggling to rein in the harvesters alone. Gowon lay sprawled on the deck, limp body easily shifted by the great rocking of the ship.

The others were taking cover, as they should. And so without a second thought, Haseul jerked the wheel forward and haphazardly tossed the chains through and over it to keep it in place, snatched up a spare set of protective gear minus the mask from a nearby barrel, and easily dove to Olivia’s side.

“Captain!” Olivia was shocked by her appearance, but had no time to dwell on it as another surge locked onto the harvesters and sent her ducking for cover. Haseul threw up her padded forearms to block her face, and hoped the magik would hold. The lightning dissipated with a crackle, and immediately she and Olivia set to work at collapsing the metal rod of one harvester down and sealing the rest of the great machine away.

Not a moment too soon, as the next bolt struck, sending up sparks that immediately fizzled out in the rain. The ship lurched. Haseul looked back at the wheel and cursed. The chains were coming undone. She scrambled to join Olivia at the other harvester.

The ship began to list dangerously yet again, sending some of the more poorly tied down cargo sliding across the deck.

“Captain!” Olivia called out again, this time with evident strain. She had managed to catch hold of Gowon, who had been sliding alongside the loose crates. With the slight magik user tangled in her arms, Olivia couldn’t reach the last harvester.

Which meant Haseul had to shut it down, and retake control of the ship, by herself.

Her mind ran faster than the lightning. If she ran back to wrestle the wheel, the harvester might take on another bolt and simply explode at the excess amount of stored energy that hadn’t been converted yet. However, if she were to tackle the harvester, the ship might upend itself and send them all to Davy Jones’ Locker.

Captain Jo never froze in times of trouble.

She heaved on the cap to the metal canister and hoped she had made the right decision.

The hairs on her arms stood again under the padded gloves. She was so close to sealing the main parts of the harvester away, just the rubber casing on the base… the ship suddenly slowed in its imminent barrel roll. Her hands fumbled in the rain-soaked covering.

“Hurry it up over there!”

Yves had thrown herself at the wheel. She was strong, but she wasn’t captain, and she was only one person. Yet she still came out of safety to help. Haseul understood this with one awed glance. Yves strained to keep the wheel from spinning out of control.

Perhaps Haseul had looked for a moment too long. Her last, desperate movement to seal the harvester away from the hungry touch of the lightning storm was the slightest second too slow. She saw the bolt coming, but had to use both hands to slam the cover in place. She turned her head, but couldn’t protect herself completely from the strike that sent a searing pain across the side of her face as the energy deflected.

Half blind, she kicked off of the harvester’s bulky form and slid into Yves, relieving her of the wheel. Immediately the woman ran to assist Olivia with hauling Gowon to safety. Mostly relying on instinct, Haseul fought to keep _The Loona_ upright and sailing forward, any direction, just out of the storm. It could have been seconds or hours later when they finally broke free of the dark clouds. Time was in the air just as it was at sea: Illusory.

Exhausted, Haseul slumped over the wheel, too tired to even chain it down. The sun shone brightly above them, glaring accusatory-like, as if it knew they had just pillaged its cousin. She let out a laugh. She was alive. They had kept _The Loona_ alive. This: sailing through hell, and back out. Now this was what she lived for.

“What were you thinking?!” Kim Lip screeched, first one out on deck at the absence of thunder. The question could have been directed at any one of them, really, so Haseul allowed herself a minute more of rest without turning to look.

“Clearly, she wasn’t,” was Choerry’s uncharacteristically cold response.

“I was thinking about the safety of our crew, actually,” came Yves’ lofty voice, a hint of patronizing annoyance obvious in it. “I had to help the captain.”

“Not you. We saw it all from the door. We know you do dumb skrit all the time.” Choerry dismissed her. “Gowon, what kind of idiotic magik spell were you experimenting with this time?”

So Gowon was alive. At least that was something.

“Don’t speak to her like that!” Olivia snapped.

“She could have gotten not only herself, but you killed! Yet you still defend her?!” Choerry, normally the happy, level-headed mediator of the group, was shouting as if the storm still raged. Haseul sighed. She really did not have the energy to play Choerry’s role at the moment. Especially amongst those three. A gentle breeze pushed them along; Jinsoul was probably manning the sails while Kim Lip was busy with her intent to lecture. The sun grew softer. The numbness in her body began to fade away as the adrenaline wore down.

“Is everyone alright? I couldn’t see much on account of Hyunjin’s big head blocking the port.”

“Not that you can see regardless, with your blind ass.”

Heejin and Hyunjin had arrived on deck, which meant the only others that were unaccounted for were…

“Yves!” Chuu wailed. “You dummy!”

“Why’t be ev’ry’n an’ they gran’ wantin’ t’ shout up’n my ear?” Yeojin grumbled.

Haseul stood, hiding the shaking in her limbs with ease, and carelessly tugged off the protective gear. She shook out her hair and turned to face the noise.

“Captain!” Chuu gasped. Everyone ceased their arguments and looked to her. Choerry immediately forgot her anger and rushed over.

“It cauterized itself, but it’s still bad.” Choerry peered at her intently. It was then that Haseul remembered the crack of lightning against her face. As if the memory triggered it, the exhaustion came to her in full force, and the left side of her face throbbed in agony.

Haseul cleared her dry throat. “Well,” she said. “Well. Second mate will set us on course for the nearest neutral port.”

Yves did a sort of half-conscious salute with her arm and fist, an old habit that still showed itself once in a blue moon. Olivia shot her a look over Gowon’s crown of wild blonde locks.

“But for now,” Haseul watched Jinsoul clamber down from a mast to join them, “are you all aware of what you’ve done?”

She made sure to look them each in the eye with her one currently good one. A few looked away. The ship, moments ago filled with chaos and noise, was silent, save for the creaking of the wood beneath their shuffling feet.

Haseul let them stew in moroseness a minute more before letting her smile loose. She didn’t mind that it set half of her face on fire with pain.

“You’ve harvested us enough lightning to last us a damn moon!” She exulted. With surprised, sheepish grins and a couple of excited whoops, her crew came back to life, conflict momentarily forgotten.

“Clean up, rest, and try not to be as reckless,” Haseul was obligated to keep them in check just a tad bit. “We’ll celebrate with real rum and the best goods of the next town we grace our presence with!”

The door at the other end swung open. Vivi waved, a large wooden spoon clutched in her metal hand. “Food’s ready!” Yeojin was already scampering past her, bare feet pounding down the steps to the kitchen. Never mind that it wasn’t quite dinner time yet. Haseul let the others follow with equal excitement so she could round them off and plant a grateful kiss on Vivi’s cheek.

She frowned. “What did you do this time?” Her other hand gently grazed the area around the wound on Haseul’s cheek. Warmth trickled from her fingers and melted inwards as Haseul saw the genuine concern in her lover’s eyes.

“I didn’t want the ship to flip. It would have disturbed your cooking.” Haseul joked.

Vivi ran her hand down until it grasped Haseul’s. She made an exasperated face. “Come. I’ll help you clean it. And I think you could use some rest away from the children, don’t you?”

Haseul was about to protest, but from up there distinctly heard Hyunjin say something particularly foul that had Yeojin hooting in delight, and the clank of bowls and mugs seemed slightly less inviting now with Vivi’s soft hand in hers.

“Alright,” Haseul gave in. “Just for you.”

But as they passed the kitchen on their way to a more private room, Haseul listened to the clamor of her crew, high off of their success and hidden relief that everyone was more or less okay, and it occurred to her that maybe she would make concessions for any one of the eleven she had come to regard as more-than-a-crew.

“Next time, I will belay you to the nest, don’t think I won’t!”

“Pass the skritting potatoes, you bastard!”

An odd, constantly squabbling, more-than-a-crew.

But more-than-a-crew nonetheless.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It’s 2AM and I wrote this instead of studying for my final that occurs in 6 hours. To Davy Jones’ I go :’)


	3. and a Sonatine

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so it was suddenly 6AM already when I looked and realized this was like 5,000 words of pure exposition... so I've decided to still give you like 5,000 words of pure exposition... just... split up...... for the....... ... .clout.. (??) ((someone pls save me from my own bad choices and inability to write im so sorry))

It hadn’t always been this perfectly organized chaos. In fact, it had once been as seemingly un-salvageable as the wrecked ship that Choerry had sent careening into the Eden girls.

It had been an inauspicious day from the start. Haseul awoke from a turbulent sleep with a hammering in her head that had nothing to do with Hyunjin’s constant cries of “splice the mainbrace!” the night before and Heejin’s enabling interest in seeing exactly how much rum the others could ingest. Haseul tried to stand and make sure Yeojin wasn’t running a rig on the two likely still unconscious girls, but succeeded only in falling out of bed with a groan.

Vivi groggily reached her good arm over the side of the bed and diagnosed her with a bad fever. She fell back asleep mid-proposal that Haseul should come back to bed and keep her warm, since she was burning up. Haseul mentally made an agreement with herself, that she would never allow the crew of _The Sonatine_ to celebrate with drink ever again, no matter how much wealth they had plundered from immoral privateers. Mouth dry, she made her way out of the cabin, shutting the door softly behind her, and trudged down the hall.

Even though they were docked, at least, they had been last night, before she had knocked open a barrel of beer and let chaos loose on deck, Haseul felt the boards beneath her move as if she had suddenly lost her sea legs. Her vision was blurred even in the dim lighting below, and her still-booted feet refused to cooperate properly. She felt like a common landlubber. The last time she had been this sick was moons ago, even before Vivi. She remembered feeling helpless then, too. She scowled and determinedly made her way to a barrel, trusting that it contained fresh water and not more grog.

That was the only instance in which luck would be on her side that morning. The water helped clear her head a bit, and she was able to gain her bearings back enough to check on Hyunjin and Heejin. The door to Heejin’s cramped quarters creaked open with a small shove, revealing the amusing sight of Hyunjin sprawled on her stomach on the floor beside the lone cot, and Heejin sprawled atop Hyunjin. Haseul had half a mind to stay and witness how they would react once they awoke and took notice of how Heejin’s nose pressed into Hyunjin’s neck and how Hyunjin’s larger hand had tangled itself in Heejin’s smaller one on the floorboards beneath them. Alas, she knew she should check on Yeojin if she wanted _The Sonatine_ to see another day.

Their self-proclaimed powder monkey was not in her quarters, but this was not unusual. Since the day she had stowed away with Haseul and Vivi, Yeojin had made it clear that she did as she pleased, scampering in and out of trouble nearly undetected if not for her gleeful giggles. Haseul made her way topside and gagged at the bright, taunting rays of sun that increased the throbbing in her temples.

“Are you up here, frog?” Haseul squinted around the deck. At least they were still anchored. Most of the booty from yesterday’s raid had already been moved onto the island, bless her foresight. Today she would not move a single barrel if she could help it. She intended to let _The Sonatine_ and its small crew rest at their port for another sunrise, at least until they divided up what to store and what to take to the nearest civilized port to trade. Heejin’s magik was good enough to conceal their little island from others, but no sailor ever wandered this far into the middle of nowhere anyway.

Kicking some crates along the way, Haseul slowly made her way to the foremast. Yeojin failed to spring up from any crevice she passed. Haseul absentmindedly rubbed at a stain on the sleeve of her waistcoat and wondered where Yeojin would be. She looked upwards, towards the crow’s nest, because she often found the girl snugly tangled in the ropes fast asleep, and it was the resulting wave of nausea that prevented her from fully seeing the flashing disturbance high in the sky above her.

“Sail, ho!”

Haseul reflexively reached for her cutlass upon Yeojin’s startling appearance from an empty barrel just to her right.

“For love’s sake, Yeojin!” Her hand closed around her empty belt, and she wondered where she had left her sword. She never felt quite as secure without it, although she could take on any pirate or privateer with just her fists and her wits.

“‘Seul, innit you hearin’ me?” Yeojin jumped up and down, pointing in what Haseul knew to be a northward direction. “Sail, ho! ‘ight there!”

Haseul swallowed down her dizziness and followed Yeojin’s wild arm. Indeed, a speck in the distance was growing larger and larger. She could just make out white sails. She was a small boat, smaller than _The Sonatine_ , but she couldn’t tell if they flew the jolly roger or a flag of some kingdom or other.

There was no way she was sailing towards them intentionally. Still, Haseul knew it was safer to stand on land and wait it out than to be discovered on deck and risk having cannons immediately fired at them.

“Wake the others. We’re moving to land.” Haseul ordered. And, as an afterthought: “And you can tease those two later all you want. Just don’t waste time now.”

Yeojin cast her a confused look as she darted away. Haseul began a search for a spyglass. She heard Yeojin’s loud, exaggerated noise of understanding as the mischievous girl shoved open Heejin’s door, and then two more confused voices that suddenly became very affronted and panicked. Any other time, Haseul would have allowed herself a chuckle, but her head was pounding and she couldn’t find her spyglass but the ship in the distance was becoming big enough to see without one, all too fast.

“...Not _my_ fault you decided to drink so much, you ass!”

“Oh, so suddenly it’s _my_ fault that you decided to smother me in my sleep?”

Heejin and Hyunjin made their irritated appearance on deck, Yeojin dragging a sleepy and quite adorable Vivi close behind.

“What’s going on, ‘Seullie? You should be resting.” Vivi made her way over to Haseul, trying and failing to hook her wooden arm in place with eyes half shut. The catch must have gotten stuck again. Haseul felt the usual twinge of guilt and spent precious time helping Vivi get it in place.

“But of course you insist on the _logic_ , mechanic twit!” Heejin glared.

“At least I’m not dependent on my _feelings_ like some stupid fairy dust sniffer!” Hyunjin spat.

“That is not how magik works and you know it!”

“I know that you’re a little -- ”

Haseul pushed their hands down, effectively forcing them to re-sheathe their half-drawn swords, grabbed both of them by the backs of their shirts, and marched them off the ship and down the gangway onto dry land.

“There’s a ship coming our way. We do not engage unless absolutely necessary. Stay hidden inlands, and stay quiet for love’s sake!” Haseul hissed. Perhaps it was the feverish glaze in her eyes, but the forever bickering duo looked at her and then the incoming ship, and obeyed, not without narrowed eyes fixed at each other.

Vivi tucked her spyglass into her hand in passing, somehow always knowing what she needed. Haseul breathed out a thanks and set her sights on the intruder.

No distinguishable flags. She was sailing fast, wind buffeting her along nicely. If they continued on a straight course, they would just barely pass by the limits of Heejin’s concealing spell. She panned the spyglass downwards a bit and made out the name painted onto the ship’s hull in a rich green, _Rendezvous_ , and then Yeojin was screaming “Wha’ th’ lovin’ hell”, and Haseul lowered the spyglass in time to see a flaming streak drop from the sky right smack onto the mizzenmast of _Rendezvous_.

Haseul blinked. Perhaps her fever had made her begin to hallucinate.

Yeojin’s continued shrieks of disbelief made her think otherwise. She trained her spyglass back onto the fiery wreck. The first thing she saw was the word _Starlight_ bolded by red and blue accents and the oddly purple flames around it. The next thing she saw was two figures throwing a dinghy overboard and diving into the ocean after it, not from the side of _Rendezvous_ , but from the overturned top of their own mizzenmast.

Because _Starlight_ was a ship. A ship that had fallen in flames from the sky.

 _Starlight_ and _Rendezvous_ were awkwardly caught in each other now, almost as if they had tried to fuse together. Haseul watched as the momentum from the crash kept them careening over the water.

Straight towards _The Sonatine_.

She thought she might have seen other figures scrambling atop the deck of _Rendezvous_ , but her hazy observation was cut short as a small, grubby hand grabbed hers and yanked her off the gangway and farther onto shore.

“Is’ gonna hit!” Yeojin yelled.

And hit it did. Just barely. Haseul vaguely felt relief through the fog in her mind. The smoldering tangle of splinters slowed enough to just scrape her ship’s sternpost. But the rudder made a foreboding snapping noise under the pressure. The unmoving force of _The Sonatine_ was enough to tip the off-kilter ships sideways, and the strangely hued fire sizzled out in the ocean with a great blast of hot mist to Haseul’s face.

Haseul stood, unfazed.

Until her eyes, sharp even with fever, caught flailing movement from the shock of waves that the crash had caused. Without another thought, she shook off Yeojin’s grip and ran to the edge of the gangway. She paused to make sure she wasn’t actually hallucinating. Two heads bobbed in the water, looking about desperately. One of them shouted something, a name, it sounded like.

“Chae! Chae!”

The other person seemed to have spotted something, and dove sideways. They dragged another arm up and onto a piece of driftwood, making sure the person was able to float on their own before finding their own chunk of ship remnant.

“Where is Chae?!” The third person was still shouting in a panic.

Haseul caught a glimpse of something, then, a flash of color that did not belong in the deep blue of the sea. She shed her waistcoat and dropped the spyglass onto it. She kicked off her boots, took a breath, and dove into the wreckage after that glimpse of yellow.

The ocean was oddly lukewarm, almost like a drawn bath. She couldn’t remember the last time she had taken one of those. It was nearly comforting. Still, the shock of submersion cleared her mind enough that she could focus, and instantly she locked onto the missing person, whose blonde hair looked paler than her skin in the refracted underwater light.

She kicked forward and propelled herself downwards enough so that she could grab the girl’s slowly sinking body and pull them both up. She broke the surface, gasping. Another arm came up to keep the blonde girl’s head above the water. It was the one who had been screaming her name. Her dark hair was a wet curtain over her face. Together, they wrestled the limp girl onto dry land, where the rest of her crew stood waiting on the sand.

“Oi, she bein’ dead’n, innit she?” Yeojin stared unabashedly.

“She’s not dead.” The girl shoved Haseul away and began thumping on the blonde’s chest. “She’s not dead; she’s not dead!” She was fervent in her chant, as if she could convince herself it was true if she said it enough times. She pressed her ear against the still chest beneath her, listening for anything. Even ignoring her two half-drowned companions floating onto shore beside her, the dark haired girl pinched the blonde’s nose and pressed her own lips to hers.

Haseul let out a breath she hadn’t realized she had been holding when the blonde turned over and retched out seawater onto the sand.

“She’s not dead,” The dark haired girl said one last time, voice shaky.

“But whoever attacked us is,” One of her companions said lowly, hair dark as hers, height imposing as she drew herself up onto land. She stooped to support the last girl while glaring at Haseul and her crew. “Was it you pirate scum?”

The slight accent of these people wasn’t one she could remember hearing before, but she could understand them perfectly fine. And Haseul did not particularly like her prideful identity as a pirate matched with an insult and a disdainful tone.

“I just saved her life,” Haseul growled, pointing at the blonde who was now sitting and looking around with wide eyes. “Are you that foolish to think we were the ones who crashed into your little schooner?”

The tall one narrowed her eyes at her. “I am not foolish enough to trust the actions of filthy scourge like you.”

Haseul eyed her uniform in kind. While soaking wet, it was clear from the stiffly patterned patches and gold buttons that she was some sort of official. Their ship hadn’t had a visible flag, though. Whatever she was, she was no buccaneer, and Haseul had learned that no one but pirates were to be trusted. Privateers and landlubbers always had a hidden agenda, a law to uphold, a king to pay taxes back to. Pirates were very clear about what they wanted and who they wanted it for.

She stared down the tall official. Disliking the challenge, the official’s free hand, the one not wrapped securely around the other girl’s waist, went to her waistband.

There was no weapon there, perhaps lost in the wreck, but the movement was enough to make Hyunjin and Heejin draw their swords in response. Immediately, the official pushed the girl in her arms behind her, using her own body as a shield, and the other dark haired girl drew a knife from nowhere and pointed it at Haseul. The uniform and Haseul glared, unblinking, at each other for a tense minute. Haseul could feel Vivi shift nervously from behind the other two. She had no idea where Yeojin had gone.

The knife glinted in the sun and made her head pound. This stand-off had to come to an end, and soon.

Hyunjin’s grip on her cutlass tightened. The knife rose slightly. Haseul prepared herself.


	4. (and More Ships)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “She’s breathing,” The taller of the two confirmed.
> 
> “Once she wakes up, she’ll wish she wasn’t,” The other growled.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> your kind comments enable me, unfortunately... so I gave up on separating this for readability and have sentenced us to digesting 5k more words of pure exposition, a fate worse than walking the plank(?)... next chapter will have actual plot so please don't hang me from the yardarm just yet!

“Please don’t fight,” The girl in the uniform’s arms had whimpered. Her face was buried in the official’s back so that only her dull red hair showed. “Please don’t.”

Such a small plea asking for an end to something inevitable to them all was so shocking, that for a moment, everyone froze. It was long enough for Yeojin to shout from a distance and grab everyone’s attention.

“Oi! They’s a missin’ a girl! You bilge suckers’ goin’n stay standin’ ‘round?”

She stood at the helm of the small rowboat Haseul had seen get thrown overboard _Starlight_. Behind her, two others, both with hair as light as the girl she had saved, rowed with all their might through the wreckage, looking about the water. Yeojin snatched a plank from the water and shoved bits of the broken ships out of their way. She looked like a village lassie playing captain. Except the smoke that she swatted out of the way was real. Haseul was reminded of another fire from another time and another little girl trudging through the wreckage. The sun glared down at her accusingly.

“Yerim! You little scrit, if you’re not dead, I’m going to kill you myself!” One of the silver-haired girls yelled.

Haseul shook herself and glanced at the official and her three companions, all alive, all shaken and dripping wet, putting up a brave front. She breathed out through her nose.

“Put your weapons down and help.” Her words were not a suggestion. Knowing better, Heejin and Hyunjin immediately tucked their swords away and took off towards the last standing ship to get a better view. Bewildered, the official watched Haseul march the opposite way down the beach, boots still off, eyes scanning the surf for signs of life. The girl with the knife slowly lowered it and looked to her in confusion. With a jerk of her head, the taller one told her to go along with it. She pursed her triangle-shaped lips but set off after Haseul, knife disappearing into the folds of her dripping pants.

It was she who found the missing girl; rather, the missing girl exploded into existence in a flash of purple light and landed right in knife girl’s stiff arms. Glad she didn’t have to dive into the ocean again, Haseul turned on her calloused heels and began making her way back to the commotion. Heejin tugged on Hyunjin’s arm and practically sprinted back, having seen the bizarre reappearance as well. Haseul saw the wide grin from there, and picked up her pace.

“Oh hello! I’m Yerim, who are you? You’re very pretty.” She heard the found girl say cheerily.

“I’m not -- Olivia?” Knife girl seemed very confused at the sudden appearance of a living human in her arms and the proximity of her bright smile.

“I’ve never seen that sort of magik before!” Heejin called out excitedly from behind them.

Yerim didn’t seem to hear. “Olivia, that’s a lovely name. I’m going to pass out now.” And then she passed out. Olivia staggered under her sudden deadweight.

Haseul caught up and snorted at the panicked look on Olivia’s face. She reached out a helping hand, but Olivia’s face darkened at her teasing, and without another word, she swooped an arm under this Yerim girl’s legs and easily carried her like a bride back down the beach to where Vivi and the red-haired girl were talking under strict supervision of the official girl. Heejin rushed off after them. Hyunjin looked at Haseul. Haseul shrugged. Less exertion for her, which had been the original plan. She silently bemoaned the loss of her labor-free day.

“Thi’ one’s Jungeun, an’ thi’ one’s Jinsol, an’ they friend o’er there’s Yerim!” Haseul returned to the group by the gangway to find Yeojin hopping onto land and giving bright introductions to the very bemused crowd. She opted to stand close by Hyunjin, who tended to turn to her cutlass in situations she didn’t know how to deal with. But the official was standing a bit too close to Vivi for her liking, who Haseul realized was probably standing just a bit too close to the redhead for the official’s liking. Her headache seemed to grow exponentially.

Olivia seemed to suddenly remember that she had Yerim in her arms, and dumped her unceremoniously in the middle of them. The blonde girls ground the boat onto sand and rushed to her side. Everyone stood awkwardly, watching them check for a heartbeat, glancing at the others warily.

“She’s breathing,” The taller of the two confirmed.

“Once she wakes up, she’ll wish she wasn’t,” The other growled. “Why did I let her talk us into this mess? I can’t believe we really thought she could…” She seemed to realize they had a less-than-friendly audience, and cut herself off warily. An island bird chirped from somewhere distant. This was the most stifling atmosphere Haseul had ever had the misfortune of experiencing, and she had once been locked in a barrel for two nights in an underground cellar.

Yeojin tried to clarify the situation. “They’n was th’ ones what fell from th’ sky!” She pointed at the three in the middle almost proudly, as if she was introducing a brilliant fallen star. The others, unfortunately, did not share her enthusiasm.

“So you three got us into this wreck?” The official growled. She snatched one of their dinghy’s oars from the sand and pointed it threateningly at them. Hyunjin drew her sword again. The slightly smaller blonde rose from her crouch near Yerim, fists clenched defensively.

At this point, Haseul had had enough. The sun and smoky air were not helping her head. All she had wanted to do this morning was to check on her crew, then crawl back into bed with Vivi and ignore whatever shenanigans the three younger girls would get into. Now there were seven new problems to deal with, and Haseul rescinded her earlier agreement to never allow drink on her ship again because she could really, really use some rum right at this moment.

“Listen, you pompous scrit, we obviously didn’t mean to crash -- ”

Haseul decided to cut off the blonde, Jungeun, if Yeojin had said correctly, before a real fight broke out and her head split open.

“Alright!” She boomed. Confused glances and angry glares went to her. “Alright, mateys. We’re all confused and angry. Let’s get ourselves sorted before we get to fighting, yes?”

The official turned the oar towards her. Haseul disarmed her with a kick, reached over and drew Heejin’s sword from her belt, and held the blade at Jungeun’s neck in the blink of an eye. She didn’t know the weapons that those three had, but she knew that Yeojin had most likely already swiped Olivia’s knife without her realizing, so she had mitigated all threats for the moment. Her hunch was proven correct when Olivia could not find her weapon, and the other blonde, Jinsol, raised her arms to indicate no hostility.

“Put that away, Hyunjin.” Haseul shot a glare at the short-tempered girl, who reluctantly sheathed her cutlass. “Let’s get ourselves sorted before we get to fighting,” she repeated through gritted teeth, “yes?” She swept her gaze over the rest of the now silent group.

“We have food and dry clothes further inland,” Vivi’s soft voice blanketed over the tension that was now diffusing into plain exhaustion. “Let’s get… was it Yerim?... to a bed.” The red-haired girl nodded emphatically in agreement. She took Vivi’s hand in both of her own, and the two of them began making their way off the beach towards the structures that Haseul had built with her own hands so many moons ago.

With nary a backwards glance, Haseul tossed Heejin her sword, grabbed her clothes from the gangway, and followed. Everyone else hastily fell in behind her. She could hear Olivia murmur something quietly to the fair-skinned blonde she had rescued. A melodic voice, one she hadn’t heard yet and so surmised was Jinsol, gently suggested that Yeojin not poke Yerim’s face while she lay unconscious.

She also heard the official fall into step beside her. Her gait was stiff and measured.

“No one has disarmed me for ten years,” She eventually said over the crunch of small rocks beneath their feet, voice as stiff as her steps.

Haseul snorted. “You were holding an oar.”

“Anything is a weapon in the right hands.”

“You have an odd way of apologizing.”

She received an incredulous look. “What have I to apologize for?”

Haseul chose not to respond. She kept her focus on the back of Vivi’s head a few paces ahead. She supposed if she were in her place, she would have reacted much the same. Everyone, pirate or not, was scared of losing things important to them. Vivi’s wooden leg caught on a crevice as the sands transitioned into dirt and trees. The red-head kept her steady before Haseul could dart forward, arm raised to help.

The official caught her reaction. She eyed her again, but this time contemplatively.

“What?” Haseul asked flatly.

“I think I’d like to fight you,” She responded.

Haseul laughed at the genuine tone. “Will oars be allowed?”

For the first time, she saw a ghost of a smile cross the other’s face. She didn’t answer, so the two of them walked onwards, into a clearing where Haseul knew a resthouse, and thus sweet relief, lay.

“Yves,” the official offered.

Haseul appraised her. “Captain,” she responded.

Yves’ would-be-smile vanished.

Haseul smirked. “You can call me Haseul if you best me in our fight.”

The smile returned, and so did the fiery look in her dark eyes from the shore.

Haseul didn’t actually expect to fight her, but after a sleepless night for all except Yerim who refused to wake into her companions’ wrath, Hyunjin and Jungeun returned from their evaluation of the ships with unfortunate news.

“The only salvageable ship is yours, _The Sonatine_. We’ll need at least a fortnight to get her in working condition again,” Jungeun explained. “So we’re all marooned here until then.”

“I still don’t see why Heejin can’t just magik it all fixed up,” Hyunjin grumbled.

“You know that’s not how magik works,” Heejin mumbled back tiredly, more out of an obligation to argue with Hyunjin than anything else. She had taken it upon herself to stand guard all night, in case the strangers tried anything.

“Indeed. Practical magik is all about theory. Most magik users live by the theory of indirection. It is more illusory-based, working with what is already in existence to deflect perception. One cannot simply conjure new matter into being. Unless…” The slight blonde girl, who had been silent other than whispers to Olivia thus far, trailed off under everyone’s curious gaze.

“Damn, was she from your side of the academy?” Hyunjin elbowed Heejin.

Heejin ignored her, exhausted eyes already lit up with interest. “That’s right. What’s your name again?”

She said two syllables, but Olivia, standing behind her, said two other syllables over her, so it sounded something like:

“Go… Won?” Heejin asked. Olivia gripped the blonde’s shoulder. The blonde tried to communicate something with her eyes, but Olivia would not look at her. The two didn’t clarify, so the others just shrugged and accepted it.

“Well, Won is obviously smarter than some people here.” Heejin elbowed Hyunjin back. The two broke the tension with their bickering. Haseul turned to find Vivi; her headache persisted and her fever still had not broken, and she just wanted a good night’s rest. Her feet led her away towards a shelter where she thought maybe they had water stored.

“...Obviously your education was whacked…”

“...We went to the same academy!...” Heejin’s and Hyunjin’s voices faded into the trees. Haseul allowed herself a small sigh of relief. She turned a corner around the shelter, and ran straight into another person.

A flurry of red hair apologized beneath her and scrambled for the cup she had dropped.

“Oh, oh my god! I’m so sorry! Captain! Right? You’re the captain, yes. I’ve just never met a real pirate before, you see… I was looking for you! Oh, and I ran right into you… I’m sorry!”

Haseul steadied her with one hand on a broad shoulder. The girl clicked her jaw shut and looked contritely up at her. Clearly this one was the lesser threat out of the rest of her companions. Still, one could never be too wary. She stared impassively back.

“What’s your name?”

“Jiwoo! Well, most everyone calls me Chuu, because I talk fast, and when I introduce myself I say my name too quickly and everyone mishears it as Chuu, but that’s okay because it’s kind of a cute nickname, don’t you think?”

This adorable, rambling mess was the girl that Yves had been ready to protect with her life on the beach. Haseul’s stone demeanor wavered.

“And why were you looking for me... Chuu?”

At this, Chuu visibly brightened, and held the cup up proudly, and then dropped it a bit, shy. “I ah… I saw that you seemed a bit ill… and I found some shoots here that we used to grow on the farm and Ma would soak them in water and we’d drink it whenever we had an ailment and it would all be better by the morn’!”

Haseul wondered why her crew couldn’t be this cute. Instead, Heejin and Hyunjin got into fistfights daily, and Yeojin ran around pickpocketing people. Haseul herself relished a bit too much in the fear in men’s eyes when they realized too late that they were being ambushed. Gentle Vivi was their only saving grace. No wonder the two seemed to have bonded so quickly.

“So you made some… for me?” Haseul asked.

Chuu nodded earnestly. “Well, the cup’s empty now, so I’ll have to make some more, but it will help you feel right as rain! I promise that, Captain!” And then she dashed off. Haseul chuckled, amused, but also effectively drained of energy. She entered the shelter, settled on a cot with a knife under her pillow, and fell into a heavy sleep.

When she awoke, the fever had broken, and she dragged herself to the shore to see the beginnings of construction on her beloved ship. She knew she could trust Hyunjin and Heejin, but she was wary of Jungeun and Jinsol. After half an hour of quiet observation, however, she saw how the two knew their way around ships and how they treated _The Sonatine_ with the utmost care and respect. More than what she and its previous owner ever gave it, anyway.

She watched the way in which they all teased each other, an easy sort of camaraderie formed through similar passions and a common cause. She left them to their own devices. She had to take stock of the rations, make sure there was enough to sustain twelve people for two weeks more, and that no one decided to be slick and steal some of their hard-won loot. Chuu ran into her again and practically force-fed her her concoction. Surprisingly, her mind felt clearer and her body less tired. It didn’t take away the bubbling agitation in her gut, though, the knowledge that she could do nothing except check and double-check the rations each hour.

The next few days passed, and Haseul noticed the changes that began to take place.

There was less squabbling on the part of Hyunjin and Heejin, since Hyunjin had turned some of her teasing onto Jinsol, who took it in surprising grace and often turned it around on her. Gowon still didn’t talk much, but Olivia was less hostile towards anyone who came a bit too close to her than she deemed necessary, even spending time demonstrating to a wide-eyed Yeojin how her knife could click apart and lock into place as a harmless capsule or a short sword, after Yeojin sheepishly returned the weapon to her. Heejin had taken to returning Chuu’s enthusiastic chatter about everything since her attempts at discussing magik theory with Gowon were refuted by Olivia’s glare. Only Yves and Jungeun remained on the outskirts of each less and less hesitant interaction amongst the three crews. And Haseul. They watched each other with circumspect paces around the island when they had nothing else to do.

And Yerim woke up. Haseul saw her bed empty one afternoon, and soon found her sitting on a tree stump with Vivi, using a branch to poorly demonstrate the mechanisms of a much more functional, slightly magiked, metalloid arm that she offered to make Vivi once they left the island. Haseul saw the muted longing in Vivi’s eyes. She really tried her hardest not to project her sudden wave of self-loathing onto the innocent girl, who took notice of her and stood to grasp her hand.

“Oh, you must be Captain Haseul! Vivi talked about you a lot!” She smiled brightly, as if she hadn’t just awoken from a coma and found out she was stranded with nine strangers. In fact, her countenance looked better than the lot of them.

“Oh did she now.” Haseul arched an eyebrow. Vivi shrugged. Her eyes lingered on the branch in Yerim’s hands, and the guilt, on top of the restlessness and uselessness she had been itching with lately, left Haseul with a bitter tongue.

“Did she tell you that I was the reason she lost her arm and leg?” Haseul’s voice was flat. Yerim faltered. Vivi’s eyes shot to her immediately.

“Haseul.” Vivi almost never used her full name. Haseul felt the fight leave her bones. It was just the restlessness that made her quick to wallow in regrets, the itch in the back of her mind that did its best to convince her of her own incompetence as a leader, as a lover.

“Sorry,” she muttered, and stalked off with some excuse about checking on the ship before she could hear Vivi’s small sigh. Some things changed, but others would forever feel the same.

She ran into Yves on the way to shore. She and Olivia argued in hushed voices, and stopped abruptly when Haseul approached. She couldn’t care less about their secrets.

“Let’s fight.” The words slipped from her mouth sharply like a knife between the ribs. Olivia arched an eyebrow, but Yves stepped forward immediately.

“Will you allow oars?” She asked loftily.

“Anything is a weapon in the right hands,” Haseul echoed. The easiest items in proximity, however, were Heejin’s and Hyunjin’s swords, left in their belts on the sand as they fluttered around the rudder of _The Sonatine_ with Jinsol and Jungeun. Haseul tossed one at Yves. She caught it with one hand and unsheathed it in one fluid motion, leaving the belt on the ground beside her defensively positioned feet.

“Oi, I though’ we was all’n gettin’ along fin’lly!”

Olivia caught Yeojin’s arm and held her back from hurtling in between the two. She looked between her and the two cloaked in tension, confused.

Yves inclined her head. “Captain.” Her dry uniform cut her out to be an imposing figure. She held her sword up with practiced ease.

Haseul charged.

She didn’t recall much around the thrill of the fight, but when she came to her senses, both she and Yves stood panting, swords long kicked out of reach, fists and cheekbones bruised. The anxiety in her gut had vanished, and the pounding blood in her veins was delightful, even though it made her busted lip appear worse than it really was. Yves’ expression was unreadable, eyes still dark and dangerous.

Raucous clapping from one side broke the spell.

“A bloody good figh’, innit, Yerim?” Yeojin had, it seemed, mustered an audience. From the ropes of the ship, Heejin and Hyunjin agreed with aggressive applause, and Jinsol more politely joined in as well. Vivi and Chuu looked on together with concern, but Haseul would be damned if she didn’t see a glimmer of pride in Vivi’s eyes along with it.

Yves and Haseul exchanged glances. Haseul lowered her fists. Yves inclined her head once more.

“For a pirate, you’re not a bad opponent. Captain.” She might have smiled. She made an odd gesture with her arm, a closed fist to her chest, and made to walk off. A hand stopped her.

It was Jungeun. She shoved one damp cloth into Yves’ hand, and turned and slapped another at Haseul’s face. The soothing coolness and sudden scent of something herbal was less surprising than Jungeun’s gruff words.

“Salve. Yerim’s own concoction from home, made just for me and Jinsol. Hold it on your wounds; it’ll help.” And before she stalked off as if she hadn’t just given a token of kindness and perhaps trust: “I know you two want your crews safe. I do too. So let’s work together for now, got it?”

Neither Haseul nor Yves agreed, per se, but they grudgingly held their most egregious injuries with the cloth, and watched from a much closer distance as Olivia taught Yeojin some fancy knife techniques and Vivi and Chuu roasted vegetables together and Jinsol patted Gowon’s cheeks whenever she passed. The sun rose and fell on the island. Haseul still slept with a knife under her pillow, but she had done that since she was taught to at nine years old, anyway.

As the group later sat on the shore and watched the ship become whole under the early morning sun, Haseul finally felt comfortable enough to ask the question that had been itching at her for a whole fortnight:

“Yerim, how exactly did you make your ship fall from the sky?”

All ears turned her way. Yerim’s ears turned bright red.

“I… may have miscalculated… a few things.”

From the gangway, Jungeun scoffed. “The little skrit said she had figured out a way to fly. Jinsol and I don’t know jack skrit about magik, so we let her convince us to test her theories with my old man’s boat.” She looked off into the waters sadly, where some bits of the wreckage still floated.

“I know a bit about magik!” Jinsol called brightly, hanging halfway off the anchor ropes with her legs. “I know that Yerim can make air do exactly what she wants and you can tell it’s her because there’s a purple shimmer, like when you touch the water and it sends out those nice rings that -- ”

“You can _what_?!” Heejin shot up from Chuu’s shoulder and gaped.

“That’s impossible,” Gowon said in her small voice. Yerim only shrugged sheepishly.

“What’s impossible,” Jungeun tossed one of Hyunjin’s hammers onto the sand, “is getting a giant boat to fly. But at least this one can sail.” Cheers rang out as Hyunjin surfaced from her last check below waters and confirmed that _The Sonatine_ was all patched up.

“It’s not impossible,” Haseul laughed, because with the blueprints left to her and Hyunjin and Heejin’s dual ingenuity and a little bit of absurd luck, she knew that it wasn’t.

“What do you mean?” Yerim’s wide eyes were shiny but confused.

“I mean,” Haseul pushed herself off of the sand and walked up the gangplank until she was a step away from crossing back onto her ship, “it’s not impossible, because we’ve done it. _The Sonatine_ is the only ship to fly the seas and skies with equal ease.” A breeze pushed her hair back away from her face as she looked past her deck and outwards to the horizon.

“Cow skrit,” Jungeun scoffed.

Haseul cocked her head. “Well, are you coming to find out, or not?”

As it turned out, Haseul was not lying, and she had an enjoyable time watching Yerim run around deck screaming to Heejin about the logistics, and Yves try to comfort an airsick Chuu while tripping on legs accustomed to neither air nor sea. Such an enjoyable time, in fact, that she didn’t think about the next steps when they landed at the nearest coastal town that evening.

Heejin had, though, and her interest in these new people and their knowledge was so great that she pulled out a sort of pout even their youngest never used to beg her to let them stay. For once, Hyunjin was in agreement with her, showing up on deck, cheeks a fine red, Jinsol’s arm draped over her shoulder. Heejin looked like she might rethink her plea to Haseul, but she just stared blankly at the two for a while before turning her pout to Chuu, who instantly began doting on her.

Jungeun looked regretful when she said, “This is our town. We had better stay.”

She still looked regretful, but also hopeful, when she and the other two girls came sprinting back to the ship not an hour later, chased by an angry father who cared more for his boat than his daughter. Yves accidentally, or so she claimed, knocked him unconscious, and Haseul made a hasty get-away into the sky.

She sailed without a clear destination in mind, keeping in the gentle mists of the clouds. The eleven crammed into already cramped cabins to sleep. Hyunjin and Heejin complained excessively about having to share a cot. A night passed.

Just as the sun began peeking from the horizon, Yves and Olivia made their way on deck at the same time. They stood above the forecastle and argued in hushed voices until the sun rose a quarter rotation, and Gowon walked on deck, steps delicate and eyes sleepy. Haseul watched from the wheel as she marched up to them, listened to the dark-haired girls argue, and cut them off with a short sentence. A minute later, Yves trudged across deck and cleared her throat.

“We have decided to stay with _The Sonatine_ until your crew has a stop convenient to you, upon which we will part ways.”

“You have an odd way of thanking people.”

Yves was incredulous. “What have I to be thankful for?”

Haseul might have found it a fitting end conversation, but for some reason or other, the four from the _Rendezvous_ never ended up parting ways, maybe because of the way Chuu practically blubbered in Hyunjin’s arms when she said she could eat Chuu’s cooking forever no offense to Vivi, or because Yeojin had swiped Olivia’s knife once again and bit at anyone who tried to get her to return it. And Haseul had been meaning to let _The Sonatine_ go in favor of a larger ship, one more suited to withstand counter-fire, who could carry heaps of stolen treasure and whose hull wasn’t a mismatch of patches.

And so what if the new ship also had more room for passengers. It was purely coincidental, Haseul reasoned to herself, as Jungeun berated her and Yves for sparring right above the officers’ quarters where Gowon took a nap, and Chuu loudly tried to teach Jinsol and Heejin an old work song from her childhood.

Purely coincidental, how Yerim blew teasing purple wind at Olivia and Hyunjin and shrieked into Vivi’s arms when they sicced Yeojin on her in retaliation.

And so it was by pure coincidence that _The Loona_ set sail, and maybe, with a touch of magik, that they became more-than-a-crew.


	5. Touch-down

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Why can’t we just tie up the frog and leave her here?”
> 
> “Oi! Belay me one mo’ time ‘n you’ll be see’n what happens!”
> 
> Haseul cheerily continued to munch on her corn.

Harvesting enough lightning to trade for a castle’s worth of rum? An incredible feeling. Escaping arrest by taking out the king of Sandside’s best guards with nothing but a tree branch? Even more incredible. Finally figuring out the blueprints to a flying ship left behind as a final challenge by a mentor as questionable in his disappearance as he was in his tutelage? Well.

Haseul had experienced a great number of incredible feelings in her relatively small number of years alive, but nothing could ever best the feeling she got while eating one of Vivi’s hot, home-cooked meals.

“I have set course for Minjfeld. We shall arrive shortly.” Yves was the first to finish her meal, as per usual, and relayed her message to Haseul with a small nod and a silent tuck-in of her chair.

“Thank you, Yves,” Haseul managed around a large bite of deliciously buttered corn, a cob as yellow as gold and set aside for her by Vivi, thus worth more than any hard-earned coin.

“Minjfeld?” Kim Lip swallowed her own bite before continuing. “Last time we were there, didn’t Yeojin accidentally set a tax collector's house on fire?”

“Who’n be sayin’ ‘twas an ass-ident?” Yeojin, on the other hand, didn’t bother to chew her food before she blurted out a protest.

“He was a rather rude man,” Jinsoul agreed. She absentmindedly stole a piece of meat from Hyunjin’s plate, only to turn her fork around, “Say ‘ah’,” and feed the girl with it. Hyunjin glowed happily.

Heejin, sitting across from the both of them, rolled her eyes and gave her attention to the other conversation. “Yeah, he harassed people for money they didn’t owe and kept it for himself. I think that warranted a spark or two."

“It also warranted a wanted poster for Yeojin,” Haseul raised her voice just slightly. The others paused their own tittering to listen in. “Which is why we’ll be staying only at the Easternmost market when we land.” She bit into her corn, relishing in its flavour, and ignored the incoming complaints of her crew.

“The Easternmost market? But there’s never any new technology there!”

“Th’ old lady at the fruit stand glares so’thn right fearsome, ‘lo.”

“Ah, we can’t steal from the Easternmost market; they’re hardly rich. Captain, that’s boring.”

“Why can’t we just tie up the frog and leave her here?”

“Oi! Belay me one mo’ time ‘n you’ll be see’n what happens!”

Haseul cheerily continued to munch on her food. They could complain all they wanted, and never was there an hour at which they refrained from doing so, but they ultimately agreed that their captain knew best. And as much as Hyunjin might gripe that she did, she knew they didn’t want Yeojin arrested. To be arrested in most kingdoms was to await trial and punishment in dark dungeons, squatting in cramped cells waiting for your crew to bribe or fight or otherwise break you out. No home-cooked meals to be found. Haseul knew. She had been arrested more times than the rest of her crew combined. It was not a pleasant experience for someone as restless as she, much less Yeojin; _The Loona’s_ peripatetic powder monkey would probably rather be thrown overboard than imprisoned.

Haseul took another bite amidst the crew’s grumbles. Yves surveyed the crowded room with a dispassionate gaze, nodded once more at Haseul with a sympathetic raise of an eyebrow, and slipped out. Unsurprisingly, Chuu was next to announce that she was done with her meal, although there was still a good portion left on her plate, and followed after Yves’ silent footfall with clumsy steps of her own. Surprisingly, Choerry was quick to follow. Usually she was one of the last to finish meals, lingering to help clean up after the others.

Haseul figured the tense look that Gowon and Olivia exchanged when Choerry moved to leave had something to do with it. The warm-hearted girl cleaned her plate, stacked it in the cupboard that Heejin had magiked to prevent major breakage during storms, and exited without so much as a glance in the duo’s direction.

Olivia moved to go after her, but paused halfway to a stand. Haseul knew that if she looked under the table, she’d see Gowon’s small hand placatingly linked with Olivia’s. Olivia sat back down, stiff shoulder wedged against the other girl’s.

Well, it was none of Haseul’s business.

She cleared her own plate, thanked Vivi with a buttery kiss to her cheek, and headed topside before Yves, through Chuu, gave the call. The others would soon join. After all, docking _The Loona_ from the sky was a sight to behold. Some liked to experience the swooping feeling in their stomachs as the magik fizzled out of the sails and they careened down at gravity’s discretion. Haseul liked to see the dumbfounded expressions on people's faces as they landed.

“Land, ho!” Chuu called out. Haseul stood at the helm and patted her coat pockets to find her spyglass. It knocked against her arm after a moment. She glanced downwards to see Yeojin juggling it between her small hands with a grin she recognized as nothing good. Her suspicions were proved correct when she tried to take the spyglass, but Yeojin backed up mid-toss so that she grabbed only air.

Haseul sighed. “What do you want, frog?”

Yeojin beamed innocently. “Well I wa’ thinkin’ tha’ mayhaps I could try me han’ at landin’ th’ ship today!”

Haseul’s response was immediate. “Absolutely not.” She returned her gaze to the speck of land in the distance. It grew steadily in size, even as Jinsoul and Lip let the sails down to slow the ship for descent. The wind tickled the back of her neck, looking for the resistance it had lost.

“Oi, come on then, ‘Seul! We just be landin’ in Minjfeld! Them landlubbers see’d us land afore. Ain’ no impressin’ none body.”

“No.”

“Reckon I could be doin’ it better tha’ you, skritface.” Yeojin stuck her tongue out petulantly, almost out of Haseul’s line of sight. She began dropping the spyglass to kick back up to herself with calloused feet.

Haseul took the opportunity to swipe out faster than Yeojin could react to, snatching her spyglass on the rebound of a kick, and turning it so the narrower end stuck under Yeojin’s chin. Yeojin gulped.

Haseul leaned in close to the girl, eyes narrowed. She let Yeojin stay frozen in nervousness for a beat longer, before leaning back with a snort. “‘Skritface’? I thought Jungeun would have taught you better insults by now.” She uncapped the spyglass and peered below at the waters with the eye on the uninjured side of her face.

Yeojin recovered quickly, and made another nasty face at her. “Wha’ever. Lame bilgesucker, you be’n, you hear? You’s not be’n scary ‘t all, asides!” And, annoyed that Haseul wasn’t paying attention to the nasty face she pulled, she settled with kicking at Haseul’s leg and bolting off.

Haseul grimaced, less out of pain, more out of fond irritation. Who had taught her that move? (Haseul pretended that she herself hadn’t, as a younger, more peevish girl, ended conversations she disliked with a swift kick to the other’s shins. She also pretended that she didn’t sometimes, out of instinct, still do so when flustered.)

“‘Lo, there’s open sea about ten chains out!” Jungeun called from the ropes. Haseul waved her spyglass in acknowledgment. She had seen it. The weather was perfect, if a bit playful. The sun still hung low in the sky behind them. The docks weren’t crowded. All that was left to do was land, and drift in.

Haseul capped her spyglass. She approached the great wooden wheel at the helm, and cracked her knuckles.

“Hold her steady!” Her voice rang over the deck. She received shouts of affirmation in return, and after a slow breath, she tugged away the chains from the wheel and kicked the base. The mechanism responded eagerly to her grip.

She angled them down, easing them into a dive. The wind began to blow her hair back and upwards as her stomach swooped. The royal blue of the water glinted back up at her, always willing to welcome a wayward ship back into its arms.

She tilted them the slightest touch to the right, so the ship would hit the sea angled just so that the splash they created would be impossible to miss from shore. She grinned as _The Loona_ touched down perfectly as planned. The ocean gave way to the sudden new weight, but recovered in time to keep them resting on its surface. Large droplets splashed onto the already damp deck and onto Haseul’s clothes as retribution.

She stood proudly behind the wheel until the crew had pulled them in and weighed anchor. She might not be scary to Yeojin, but the people here and in kingdoms around the world knew of Captain Jo and her imposing reputation. And she would be lying if she said she didn’t take pleasure in the way a scruffy sailor stared with wide eyes at the name of their ship emblazoned proudly on her hull, before scrambling to hide in his own schooner.

“Mateys!” She called to her crew. They were already buzzing with excitement and fractioning gold and jewels into pouches for trade. “Remember: Easternmost market only, do not buy another tiger, and be back before sunrise!”

Hyunjin hissed in disapproval of the second point, but was already skipping down the gangplank along with everyone else before Heejin could even set it down properly against Minjfeld’s port.

Yves was one of the last to set out, as always, quick to leave or trail behind the others. She jumped from the ropes and landed with cat-like grace on the balls of her feet. Chuu followed, chattering excitedly about restocking on the food domestic to this side of the world. Yves hardly waited for her as she led the way off the ship, but was clearly listening intently to every detailed description of certain vegetables Chuu was determined to find.

Haseul swept her eyes over the deck, making sure everything was in place before she left the ship to herself. To her surprise, one lone figure lingered in the shadows of the mizzenmast.

“Olivia? Are you waiting for Gowon?” Haseul asked. Not exactly startled, because she remained unflinching in nearly every circumstance, Olivia shot her brooding gaze over to where Haseul waited at the top of the gangplank.

“Captain.” She looked over the side of the ship almost guiltily. “No, I’m not waiting for Gowon. She has gone ahead already.”

Haseul looked out as well, and indeed spotted a smaller head of golden locks beside Jinsoul’s taller form. She turned back and raised an eyebrow. Rare was the occasion that Olivia was not at Gowon’s side.

“Trouble in paradise?” Haseul prodded lightly.

Olivia stiffened. “What do you mean?”

“I mean, is Choerry still mad at you two?” Haseul vaguely rephrased. Olivia eyed her, gaze measured. It was always difficult to read the Eden girls. Yves tended to give away her feelings in a subtle shift deep in her eyes, but Olivia’s eyes were always as sharp as stone. It was her voice that changed. Gowon had been quick to adopt the dialectic quirks of everyone in the crew, and now spoke in a mish-mash of words that challenged Yeojin in incomprehensibility; Yves spoke in the same clipped, formal tone she had began with; Chuu continued to squeal instead of speak. Olivia’s surprisingly squeaky voice when jovial became lower, and her words more clipped and vetted, when her guard was flung up.

“I would not know, Captain.” Her voice sounded like a fuse run short. She seemed to shrink further into the shadows.

Haseul grunted after a moment of silence. She reminded herself that it wasn’t her business. “Well then, what are you waiting for?” She gestured towards the land, towards where the golden haired girls would soon be swallowed up by the bustle of the marketplace.

Olivia hesitated. Haseul wondered if she herself knew the answer.

“I thought I might guard the ship.”

At that, Haseul had to laugh. She made to ruffle Olivia’s long, dark hair, but Olivia easily sidestepped her reach with a warning raise of her forearm. Haseul was unperturbed, and cheerily skipped across the deck to untie a large crate.

“You know as well as I do that she doesn’t need guarding. No one has been foolish enough to try and steal from us in years.”

Now free from its restraints, the crate scratched across the deck as Haseul scooted it towards the gangplank.

“Help me with this, will you?”

Olivia begrudgingly moved to lift one side. Together, they shuffled awkwardly across the deck and down the gangway.

“I just remembered there’s a vendor here that’ll take these babies,” Haseul grunted.

“Are they the vases from the bandits in Juthlem?” Olivia was deceptively strong despite her thin frame, but she too struggled under the weight.

“No,” Haseul managed as they reached the end of the dock, “but I would still be careful --”

Olivia dropped her side before Haseul. The sudden imbalance threw her off, so that she staggered forward, and Olivia’s arms reflexively shot back up to help but knocked the top of the crate off instead. The crate dropped to the dock on its side.

Two previously docile reptiles tumbled out into open air, hissing at the abrupt change in scenery. Olivia and Haseul stared.

“Those are not vases,” Olivia confirmed.

“No, they are not,” Haseul said mildly. “They are a bit larger than I remember.”

“Lizards?”

“Of the tree serpentina variety.”

“Poisonous?”

“Most likely.”

Splotchy yellow scales shimmered angrily as the two beasts, both about as large as Yeojin, stamped with hooked feet to test the new environment. They didn’t appear too pleased with what they found. Out of the corner of her eye, Haseul saw the poor sailor from earlier finally emerge from his small schooner, only to take one look at them and dive back down. She didn’t blame him. One of the lizards fixed its beady eye upon her.

“Hyunjin?” Olivia questioned.

“Hyunjin,” Haseul agreed. The lizard hissed threateningly, fanned neck plates raising.

Haseul hitched her sword tighter against her waist before taking off after Olivia.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> a certain legendary author told me to update and also convinced me to revive a twitter account so @gaywrongs_ to yell at me about updating and for being a sansrival hoe!
> 
> Edit: I deleted it lol https://curiouscat.me/gaywrongs_ exists though!


End file.
